I have yet to break down the politics of water governance for any one country yet, so today have chosen to explore the water politics of Ghana and discuss what seem to be the primary successes and failures of water politics in the country since the 1990’s.

Before the 1990’s, water there was governed as a resource of the people but was distributed poorly and inefficiently. Starting in the mid 1990’s, Ghana increased its focus on providing water infrastructure to more rural developments. Under the administration of Jerry Rawlings, president of Ghana from 1993-2001, the government was concerned with finding ways to ensure that was distribution was fair and equitable, especially to the rural populations of the country.

The Water Resources Commission Act of 1996 created the Water Resources Commission (WRC) that used an integrated water resources management (IWRM) framework for resolving water-based infrastructure decisions. Later, the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) was created to support local communities with rural water supply and sanitation (WaterAid, 2005). Under this IWRM framework, politics was concerned with ensuring all actors and shareholders with a stake in a water project were taken into consideration when making community plans to provide water improvements for the people.

Figure 1: List of Notable Policy Changes Regarding Water in Ghana (Oteng-Ababio, et al., 2017)

Following the growing popularity of neoliberal approaches to water development in Africa, Ghana made strong changes in the politics of their water management systems in 1998 when the Ghana Water and Sewage Corporation (GWSC) was broken apart and the Ghana Water Company Ltd. (GWCL) and Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) were created (Agyenim and Gupta, 2012).

This change in Ghana has been dominated by political institutions that prioritize neoliberal and western ideologies of development. Although Ghana has been largely successful using a model of private sector participation, this may not be the only solution requisite for distributing water to its growing population. For instance, a growing number of the rural poor are not getting access to improved water sources because multinational companies are unable to find it profitable in distributing to these communities. In the early 2000’s, many countries pulled back on investments that they found unprofitable; Vivendi and Saur both “stated that they will only participate in investments where consumers can pay enough to generate a ‘fair’ profit or where governments guarantee this level of profit” (Whitfield, 2007).

There are concerns that the introduction of private sector participation was, and continues to be, done in a manner that is unequitable to all and indicative of political corruption. Yeboah, 2006 asserts that the “the Eurocentrism surrounding Ghana’s water privatization does not originate with Western technocrats but with Ghanaian elite decisionmakers.” The author expresses concerns that politicians in Ghana are more concerned with following western ideologies for development, especially in terms of promoting private sector participation in order to employ World Bank funds, and that a realistic search for the best methods of solving the water problem in Ghana is not truly being explored in depth.

Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that even though access to clean water has greatly improved across the country, the improvements have primarily occurred with certain groups, namely the urban middle and upper classes. In a 2010 report by the World Health Organization on African countries and their successes or failures in providing improved water sources, access to improved water sources in Ghana increased from 56 to 89%, reducing the gap from 44 to 11%, significantly outpacing the improvements of other African countries (World Health Organization, 2010). However, if you look to see where most of the water infrastructure improvements have been made, research “shows that the progress bypassed those who occupied the lowest ebb of the economic ladder located in disadvantaged communities creating pockets of chronic water stress areas with periphery conditions being more pronounced” (Oteng-Ababio, et al., 2017). Other researchers are concerned that not only are the urban poor not getting access to clean water, but that in many cases they may be paying more for it, whilst receiving water that is of lower quality (Owusu-Mensah, 2017).

This is no surprise that the urban poor and rural people are given unfair distribution of water resources in Ghana, as Morinville and Harris, 2014 finds that local community participation in water management is very low for the country, and that a lower proportion of people are involved in making community decisions for water infrastructure there than in comparable African countries.

Because of this, many groups are calling for greater inclusion of local people and overall participation in the decision-making process surround water projects. For instance, the National Coalition Against Water Privatization in Ghana works to “promote public delivery, ownership and management through community participation to ensure equity and equal right to potable water and also advocate for constitutional reform to make water a right” (Whitfield, 2007). 

Because of this, many groups are calling for greater inclusion of local people and overall participation in the decision-making process surround water projects. For instance, the National Coalition Against Water Privatization in Ghana works to “promote public delivery, ownership and management through community participation to ensure equity and equal right to potable water and also advocate for constitutional reform to make water a right” (Whitfield, 2007). This group has worked hard towards this end ever since the private sector increased its role in water politics in Ghana at the turn of the 21^st century. The group has only been partly successful and relies greatly on the strong efforts of a few people, but it plays an important role in the opposition voice of private sector participation within the country.

In summary, water development in Ghana has been mostly successful, at least more successful than other sub-Saharan Africa countries. However, there remains questions of how equitable the distribution of water is within the country as it relates to private sector distribution choices. Going forward, it may be that private sector may not be the best answer for rural communities, and a more localized approach of community water management may continue to grow in popularity.